Obituary broke up in 1997 after getting tired of touring, which led to drummer Donald Tardy joining Andrew W.K.'s band for a few years. Now in an interview with Chaoszine, Tardy revealed it was actually Andrew W.K.'s idea to get Obituary back together in 2003. Tardy said W.K. insisted on Obituary joining him on stage during an early 2000s Ozzfest show for a few songs, which led to the band members regaining their drive to get back on the road.
"I was on Ozzfest with Andrew, and we were playing in Florida and again, we were never not friends Obituary [even though we went on hiatus]. We still were hanging out watching sports together, you know, watching NASCAR, football, partying – but we just took a break from it. It was Andrew on the Ozzfest where, even though Andrew's set was only for 30 minutes, and even though we only had a 30 minute set he said 'do you think you think you guys would want to come out and do like, two Obituary songs?'
"And we did, and that literally sparked the flame back into how much my brother and Trevor realized how much it is to be touring. So you can half thank Andrew for being such a fan of Obituary that he invited us to do two songs on his stage with him."
Tardy also recounted his experience playing drums with W.K. between 1998 and 2003, saying it was an absolute blast.
"I don't do anything well except play drums. So I still just practiced you know, for a few years and then a dude named Andrew W.K. contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of something he was doing. So I was a part of Andrew's first two albums which were a blast. I put Andrew's band together [and] helped him create that band, and then I toured with him for five years.
"I watched it go from a concept to literally 1,000 miles an hour – a gold record, playing Ozzfest… I performed on Saturday Night Live with Andrew, I played on Conan O'Brien, I played you know, all these late night shows. I mean, it's funny. I went from Obituary and taking a hiatus to Andrew, from zero to a thousand miles an hour. Next thing you know, we're on Learjets and uh Ozzfests and Saturday Night Live. We actually opened for Aerosmith in America for 11 shows. It was just incredible. It was awesome.
"So when the [Obituary] kind of went home and wanted to get away from the scene, I dove right into it and and was doing some of the biggest shows I've ever even considered doing.""
